List of Harry Potter Pairing Names

The Harry Potterfandom is unique in the variety and sheer number of pairings that are present within it. Additionally, pairings can be given a variety of names and be referred to in a variety of ways. Below is a list of some of the most common pairings and their associated names.

Naming Conventions

The Virgule

As in many other fandoms, romantic pairings are most commonly denoted by a slash, or virgule, separating the characters' names. For example, a story labeled as "Harry/Ginny" refers to a romantic or sexual work whose primary couple is Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley.

Typically, in a het pairing the male character's name comes first (e.g. Harry/Ginny), whereas in a slash or femslash pairing the character with the most prominence (or "screen time") in canon often comes first (e.g. Harry/Draco), though this is not necessarily the case . It is sometimes seen in a slash or femslash pairing that the more dominant of the two of that particular fanfiction comes first. So if the fanfiction had Harry as the dominant partner in the pairing, his name would be put first (e.g. Harry/Ginny or Harry/Draco ).

Abbreviations

Pairings written separated by a virgule are often shortened from the characters' full names to their initials, mainly for major characters who is easily recognized by their initials. The most popular characters, namely Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco, and Ginny, are often represented by their first initial alone, whereas the first and last initials are generally used for other characters.

This may result in ambiguity, however. For example, Harry and Hermione share a first initial. Because the early fandom was basically split between Harry/Hermione and Ron/Hermione, 'H' was used for both characters: H/H versus R/H. However, as the fandom expanded and slash became more popular, R/H tended to be used for the Harry/Ron pairing, so Hermione became represented by 'Hr' (even though both she and Harry have an 'r' in their names).

Similarly, some characters share initials; for example, Ginny and George Weasley are both "GW", and Pansy Parkinson and both Patil twins are "PP". George's name is sometimes abbreviated to "GeW" to differentiate it from Ginny's, but in many circumstances initials simply must be avoided altogether. This is also true when a pairing involves a very minor character -- not many fans are going to recognize "PT" as "Pius Thicknesse", for example.

With the rise in popularity of Tumblr, which does not support the "/" symbol in tags, pairing portmanteaus of all kinds have become more common. In addition to the aforementioned portmanteaus that had always been somewhat popular, fans have begun creating entirely new (and somewhat outlandish) pairing names for use in tags, among them "Huna" (Harry/Luna), "Hinny" (Harry/Ginny), and "Luneville" (Luna/Neville).

Nautical Metaphors

In any fandom, romantic pairings are often referred to as 'ships, short for relationships, and many areas of the fandom have embraced the associated nautical terminology. Not only can fans' "sail" ships and ships "sink," but some ships are even given names and crews. This was popularized by FictionAlley's SCUSA ("Self-Contained Underwater Shipping Apparatus") thread, whose masterlist of ship names currently contains almost 1,000 different pairings.[1]

Parodies

As a reaction to the increasing popularity of portmanteau names in HP fandom, Libertine and Wicked Cherub wrote "The Meaning of Harry Potter Liff",[4] which proposed humorous definitions to increasingly improbable name mashups. Examples include:

Snarry (Harry/Snape): The fart you sneak in when standing next to someone and hope they won’t notice.

Snanger (Snape/Hermione): The sausage that bursts and hits you in the eye with sausage-juice.